Our Strengthening the Sector work includes working with communities, groups and the local VCSE sector of Milton Keynes to embed their voice and lived experiences at a local level and feed this into local and national decision and policy making.

Partnership working and networks

The local networks and partnerships that exist and are forming within the local VCSE sector of Milton Keynes encourage joint working and collaboration. Here at Community Action: MK, we facilitate a few, e.g. Mental Health Alliance and VCSE Alliance and are involved in/ offer support others e.g. Voices of Women MK and MK Intercultural Forum.

To find out more about what networks are in Milton Keynes, view our dedicated page here, which will detail and explain more of how they work and where they feed into.

View a map of the various networks in MK here.

VCSE Representatives

The VCSE sector in Milton Keynes has a number of representatives within partnerships across MK, Bedfordshire and Luton. Community Action: MK supports these representatives to connect with local groups through a variety of communication channels, networks, partnerships and networking events.

Please see the list below to view examples of the current VCSE representatives and the partnerships / boards they sit on:

Other parts of our work to Strengthen the Sector include sharing key local consultations that arise for communities and residents of MK to share their voice on. You can view all local consultations here.

Other key websites that relate to plans and strategies for Milton Keynes as a city include those for The New City Plan (which will replace the existing Plan:MK) and MK Futures 2050.

The planning team at MK City Council can be contacted directly on 01908 691691 or email development.plans@milton-keynes.gov.uk. Postal address: Civic, 1 Saxon Gate East, Milton Keynes MK9 3EJ.

Community-led data: the lived experience

In 2020 and 2021 we developed an online tool for recording community intelligence from the VCSE groups and organisations in Milton Keynes to help influence the local service design. We have also contributed to various national research projects related to the better use of the VCSE data as well as using it to help embed the VCSE sector in the newly launched ICS (Integrated Care Systems). Watch a video case study about the tool here.

If your group/ organisation would like to use the tool to feed in data and share experiences and information about the needs of your beneficiaries , please follow this link to find out more.

Find out more about the data tool here.

If you are interested in your group or organisation getting involved in any of the networks, please contact us at networks@communityactionmk.org.

September 2023: The Denny Review report – a collaborative research led by Milton Keynes Health Watch and in collaboration with Community Action: MK and YMCA Milton Keynes. Based on the data from the local VCSE Groups and underpinned by the lived experience of community members across Milton Keynes. Read more here.

Latest Updates – BLMK (Bedford, Luton, Milton Keynes)

The ICB are Looking for Case Studies – Moment’s that Matter: The BLMK Communications team have been producing case studies for their “Moments that Matter” campaign to showcase the good work that has been happening across BLMK, with a particular focus on partnership working. They are now looking for more potential case studies. Please contact Tom Fitzsimmons with any suggestions and see the attached document for more information.

Remembering Wellbeing and Self-care: Please see the following video that was created for small charity week that discusses managing stress as a small charity leader and a blog post looking at the rewards and challenges associated with leading a small charity.